1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a composite superconductor and more particularly to a composite superconducting wire using ceramic superconductor material and the method of the production thereof.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
As the superconductor material, metal superconductor, ceramic superconductor and organic superconductor are known.
It has been proposed to manufacture long superconductor wires and/or coils using superconductor material. Recently there have been found ceramic superconductors of high critical temperature and it has been discussed to manufacture superconductor wires and coils using the ceramic superconductor material.
Since the ceramic superconductor material is very brittle and treatment thereof is difficult, it has been considered difficult for those skilled in the art to manufacture ceramic superconductor long wires and coils. In order to solve the difficulty mentioned above, there has been a proposal that in view of the fact that the ceramic superconductor can be produced by sintering ceramic superconductor powder, the ceramic superconductor powder is filled in a metallic sheath, which is drawn or spun so as to provide an elongated superconductor wire with a desired diameter then the wire is subjected to a thermal process with a temperature higher than 990.degree. C. for a few hours.
However, even if the ceramic superconductor covered by the metallic sheath is subjected to the thermal process, there occurs a shortage of elements such as oxygen for realizing the desired superconductor property and therefore, there occurs such a problem that the desired superconductivity can not be obtained.
If sufficient oxygen is supplied to the process, since the ceramic superconductor may be shrunk by the thermal processing, it is still difficult to manufacture long ceramic superconductor wires. Similarly, there is a problem of difficulty of manufacturing ceramic superconductor coils.